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Summer Visit - 2013 - SHIPs

The summer visit to Caltech is 3-4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The SHIPs team came to visit in June 2013. The core team educators attended, plus 9 students.


Quotes

  • [student:] I always thought that astronomers just look into the sky with microscopes and make observations, but they do so much more than that. They are able to use tools to make further observations and do research. It's not easy being an astronomer and I have so much respect for what they do.
  • [student:] The most interesting thing for me on this trip was that we were able to work with real astronomers who were doing the same research that we were.
  • The best thing about the trip was simply being on the campus at Caltech as an active participant in a science project. I still feel honored to be able to participate in this program. On top of that, to be able to extend the tendrils of my own learning to a few of my students only adds to the satisfaction I derive in being a teacher.
  • [student:] Before this trip I thought that everyone in this field had similar jobs, and they were all related to research. Now I've realized that there are so many different jobs that go into NASA. Learning the computer and research aspects of astronomy while seeing the engineering and construction aspects at JPL really opened my eyes to all the different job opportunities in this field.
  • [student:] But, I didn't think programming would be such a big part of scientific research, simply because the two are never really associated with one another in science classes at school, so I was happy to discover its importance in the field.

Summer Visit - 2013 - SHIPs